


Dimmer Love

by SummerLeighWind



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Character Death, Childhood, Children, Cousin Incest, Divorce, F/M, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Meetings, Gen, Growing Up, Guilt, Harry Potter Next Generation, Incest, M/M, Next-Gen, Original Character(s), Pseudo-Incest, Relationship(s), Romance, Suicide, Suicide Attempt, Travel, World Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-01 00:24:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2752664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerLeighWind/pseuds/SummerLeighWind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teddy Lupin had known his cousin was going to broken by the world just by looking into his eyes, but he never suspected he'd be the last one to see Scorpius before he shattered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_"..all our days are marked with_

_unexpected_

_affronts - some_

_disastrous, others_

_less so_

_but the process is_

_wearing and_

_continuous._

_attrition rules._

_most give_

_way_

_leaving_

_empty spaces_

_where people should_

_be."_

― Charles Bukowski,  _You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense_

"Bye uncle Harry! See you next week!" Teddy declared as he hugged the man goodbye.

Smiling down at his godson with tired eyes, Harry ruffled the child's turquoise hair and told him, "That's right, you, me and Jamie will go out for ice cream then if the weather's still warm enough, alright?"

A wide grin splitting his face as his eyes turned to a bright, bright yellow; Teddy could have tackled his godfather with how excited he was, but he didn't because he wasn't so little anymore. Grandmother had told him so after Albus was born when she let him hold the baby all by himself at St. Mungo's. "That's sounds wicked, Uncle Harry!" He instead exclaimed as he stepped back into the fire place to let his uncle floo him home.

"See you then," his uncle said as he grabbed a fistful of floo and threw it down with a shout of "Andromeda Tonk's kitchen!"

A moment later, Teddy was bumbling out of the hearth at his home wondering why his grandmother wasn't at the table like usual with a pot of tea and plate of sandwiches. Frowning,

the metamorphmagus walked on and called "Grandmother?" There was no answer.

Moving out of the kitchen, he took himself to the parlor where Grandmother sometimes did her sewing and reading, then to the living room, where she kept his grandfather's television that she liked to use to watch muggle plays like Romeo and Juliet and Othello. When Teddy failed to find her there too, he feared that she'd forgotten he was coming home. That had happened once a year ago; it had really scared him then 'cause he was six and thought it meant she was dead like mummy and daddy and grandfather. However, his grandmother came back and found him weeping. It was after that when they had a long, long talk with books and pictures about death and what it really was.

It's not disappearing like he thought; it's when your body doesn't have a soul anymore and has to be taken care of, because it'd rot like an overripe banana. Death, Teddy knew now, was pretty gross and quite different from just being gone.

Frustrated and stomach rolling like it does when he gets sick, Teddy started to pace the halls of his grandmother's home. He was about to try flooing uncle Harry, 'cause he didn't like this when-

"Draco agreed," a voice that wasn't Grandmother's said from the front room. "It's going to be a secret between the three of us, just like all those years ago..."

There was a bit of silence, and Teddy was scared that somebody had broken in, but then grandmother's grave voice murmured, "looks just like his father..."

"Grandmother?" The metamorphmagus whispered, a relieved feeling making his whole body tremble. Teddy had to restrain himself from running all the way to her like a rhino in a glass house. Instead, he purposefully strode to the front room like Grandmother had taught him to and poked his head into the room.

There was his grandmother and...someone else. She was a fair-haired woman with fine lines by her eyes and mouth, but still very pretty. In her arms was a blue bundle she occasionally jogged up and down like aunt Ginny did with Albus and once did with Jamie when he was younger.

"Grandmother?" He said as he stepped into the room.

The blond woman gasped and clutched the bundle to her so tightly that a tiny pearl-white hand rose out of the blue.

Grandmother spun around and that tragic look of not being who she wanted was in her eyes again. He'd told Uncle Harry about that once. How grandmother looked at him like she wanted him to be someone else.

His godfather said that she did that because he was like his mum. His grandmother missed his mum. Harry told him that aunt Ginny also looked at Uncle George that way, sometimes. The look faded and a sternness came to his grandmother's face. "Ted, come here please," she told him.

Sending her and the woman with the baby a frown, he came forward until he was a just a step away from each of them. The metamorphmagus's grandmother snaked an arm around his shoulder and introduced him to the woman. "This is your great-aunt, Narcissa, and she's brought your cousin Scorpius by for a short visit."

His great-aunt still looked quite frightened and hugged his cousin so close to her that Teddy feared she might suffocate the little baby. "Andromeda..." she whispered.

"Ted's a good boy, if we tell him he can't speak a word to anyone about you visiting, he won't." Grandmother smiled at him in a way that wasn't very kind and squeezed him just a bit too hard. "Isn't that right, my love?"

"Yes, Grandmother," he answered dutifully.

Relaxing some, Great-Aunt Narcissa knelt down and showed him Scorpius. "This is your cousin, Scorpius," she imparted to him.

Staring at the pale, pointed face softened with wispy blond curls Teddy willed the baby to open his eyes. If only for a moment, he wanted to see into this small creature's soul and know something substantial about him. Beauty only told you so much, after all. It was the eyes that gave away what kind of beauty someone held. Did this baby only have outer beauty, or was he stunning through and through like Aunt Fleur?

As if by miracle of holy divination, the infant did so and revealed a set of eyes cut from stone. They weren't hard and glassy like that of the marble statues in the garden, but soft like the slate he practiced his maths on. Scorpius was a soft beauty, one that could have his prettiness worn away. Teddy feared for his cousin; with eyes like his, life was going to whittle him away to nothing. He knew he couldn't say this. Instead, he commented only on what there was before him.

"He's handsome," Teddy told this stranger aunt.

Taking him back, her eyes softened, and she agreed with her great-nephew, "That he is." And then, looking back at his grandmother, the blond said, "I must be going."

Grandmother's eyes welled with tears and she leaned forward and put a kiss to his great-aunt's cheek. "It was a pleasure to meet my great-nephew," she whispered.

Looking to him, the blond said, "And it has been the same for me," before she stepped away and disapparated to wherever she was to go.

"Will I be seeing Scorpius again, Grandmother?" Teddy asked.

Grandmother's fingers caressed his messy tufts of hair before answering. "No, my love, not like this," she answered.

"Okay," If he sometimes thought of the cousin he did not see when he played with baby Albus, was he really to be blamed?

* * *

Darting around the crowds in the stadium, Teddy thought of his pouting friend, Victoire, back with her uncles and cousins. He wished she could have come with him. This wouldn't be so annoying then! But Uncle Bill wasn't very happy with his friend and him.

They had been giggling frequently, instead of watching the game. If Ted were to guess, he'd say this was why Uncle Harry sent him alone. It was to give Uncle Bill some time to cool down and for Victoire to get into the game.

Swiping a hand over his brow, Teddy crinkled his nose. Sweat. Shouldn't how high they were in the air stop him from sweating so badly? Obviously not. Teddy bet it was because of all the people. Why couldn't they have held the Quidditch Cup in some place cooler? Like Germany or Belarus?

Being in the northern climates, the weather might very well have been frigid instead! But here...Ted looked for an ice popsicle stand. Uncle Harry had sent him off with enough money to buy all of his cousins and himself two - if not three - cherry pops or sherbet cups each.

Jostled to the side, the metamorphmagus yelped when he then tripped over something smaller and began to fall. He realized, with some embarrassment, that his hair was probably standing up a half-foot from his head as he'd toppled over and squished the smaller figure into the dirty ground.

Jumping up just as quick as he fell, he began to apologize, "Oh, Merlin! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

He stopped. On the ground, a little blond boy around Albus's age was staring up at him with slate eyes. They stared at one another in silence for a long moment; Ted calculating the chance of running into this specific kid as said kid just stared. Feeling quite awkward, he tried a smile on the boy. "Hi," Ted croaked.

"Um," the child replied, his mouth opened and brow furrowed.

Realizing just where the slate eyes were focused, Teddy gave a sheepish snort and turned his hair just as blond as the kid's and even had it become swept back like his too.

"That's my hair!" The little boy gasped. Standing up all on his own, the kid gave Teddy a curious once over. "How d'you do that without a wand?"

Ted grinned and winked, "I'm a metamorphmagus!"

"Grandmother told me about those once. She said knew someone who could turn their face into a duckbill without a wand."

Heart giving a surge of feelings he didn't quite know what to do with, Ted maneuvered the kid - Scorpius, he's certain - into holding his hand as they take a couple steps away from where they fell down. "Yeah?" Teddy mumbled, "I bet you're grandmother's talking about my mum; she used to be able to do that."

"How does my grandmother know your mummy?" Scorpius asked as he sent the people around them an anxious glance. He was looking for someone, Ted discerned. His little cousin was lost and alone.

He had to fix that.

"Dunno," Ted answered truthfully. "Hey, you're lost, right?"

Scowling, Scorpius stuck his pointy chin out and proclaimed with quaking bravado, "No!"

"Did you come here with your dad?" Teddy inquired as he started to look for another blond, just like he and his cousin.

"Yes," Scorpius answered puzzled. "Why are you asking?"

Taking him toward the high-end suits of the stadium. Ted only gave the kid a quick smile. "Because I'm going to help you get back to him, duh!"

This seemed to quiet the blond for a long time - almost all the way back to the well-to-do people's suites. As recognition came to the boy's eyes, Ted was relieved to know he guessed right and wouldn't have to take Scorpius back to his uncles and cousins. "My father will pay you back handsomely for helping me," his cousin told him Scorpius took him up the steps and toward the compartment where a blond head was turned away from them.

"He doesn't have to, I'm just being a good samaritan," Teddy explained as he sent the boy a smile.

"No one's good," the little boy replied with grave slate eyes already chipped from life's edges. "Father says if anyone's doing good it's for a reason and the only ones you can trust not to have a reason are family."

Leaning in close, Ted whispered, "I guess you're a smart kid, because I'm your cousin."

"I don't have a cousin," Scorpius denied.

Ruffling the little kid's hair, Teddy told him, "Just ask your grandmother sometime, alright? She'll tell you about me - and about that other metamorphmagus."

"Okay," the boy with slate-eyes agreed suspiciously.

Squeezing his hand, the teenager lead his cousin to the entrance of the Malfoy's compartment and crouched next to him, "Your father's in there, hurry along now."

"What's your name?" Scorpius demanded even as Teddy prodded him to go in.

Uncomfortable, he gave his cousin his most adult name (like he wanted his cousin to think of him as someone much older, much more distinguished, someone  _better_ ). "Edward," he finally answered.

"Thank you, Edward!" The child smiled before scampering off.

Watching him, Teddy wondered when he'd next see his cousin and how long he would have to wait for that day.

* * *

Oh so in love and feeling so very successful as he smooched his eighth-Veela girlfriend,Ted didn't care one whit as people watched them walk hand in hand toward the Hogwarts Express. He knew they must look something odd, his hair dancing between a homely shade of brown and his preferred bright blue and Victoire, blond with the legs of a muggle super model and an air of poise that drew the attention of males from every corner of the station. Brushing close to her, his girlfriend smiled and Ted was happy.

He had the stunning, charming girlfriend. Not another bloke.

Stopping a quarter meter from one of the entrances on to the train, Ted took both of Victoire's hands and promised, "I'll write you every day."

"Oh Teddy," she giggled, "Don't waste your time on me! You got to be busy learning everything for your potions master degree."

"But I want to, Vic..." he murmured as he leaned in close to press a lingering kiss to her mouth.

Teddy would reflect later that they probably would have spent another ten minutes or so chatting and kissing before she had to get on the train lest she miss it, but as the fates would have it, that was not the future they had in store for Ted Lupin or Victoire Weasley.

A thin body falls into them, causing the two to separate and stare down on a blond head as its owner exclaimed, "Oomph!"

"You alright there, mate?" Ted asked concerned as he offered a hand to the kid.

Slate eyes missing a whole sheet of protection lift upward and meet the older boy's. Ted felt his stomach give way as the boy grabbed his hand and used it as leverage to right himself on his feet.

"Sorry for interrupting you..." the boy apologized as he straightened out his robes and went back to his trunk just a step away.

Victoire, confused, disagreed with the other blond. "Non, my dear. It's not as if you meant to fall."

He gave them a rueful smile. "Maybe not, but  _someone_  meant for me to fall."

Ted licked his lips, feeling the need to give the boy a word of advice - or better yet, a shield to use against those out to hurt him. This kid was his cousin, and people were already pushing him around! Surely a boy from a family like Scorpius's would be better prepared against such brutality?

"Do I know you?" Scorpius inquired suddenly as he scrutinized Ted's faintly blue hair.

Throat dry, Ted whispered, "The Quidditch Cup. You were lost and I brought you back to your dad."

"Cousin!" The kid declared, a small smile brightening his face. "Grandmother told me. She said you were my cousin and that your mum was her niece!"

Ted smiled, but he could see from the corner of his eye Victoire was frowning. "That's right, kid," he replied as he lifted his arm for the kid to come close for a hug.

Scorpius hesitated, but a moment later, he was attached to Ted's side. He was squeezing all the life from him, just as Al did a few minutes earlier.

"Teddy, who's this child?" Victoire demanded. "Is he truly your cousin? Both your parents were only children..."

The Metamorphmagus doesn't quite know what to tell his girlfriend, so he shrugged. He shifted Scorpius, so he wasn't so exposed to the frown Victoire was sending them. "He's my second cousin," Ted slowly answered, as the words came to him. "Our parents were cousins - on grandmother's side."

Victoire makes a face. "Your...grandmother," something a bit like shock came to her eyes then. "He's-"

"Yeah, this is Scorpius Malfoy," he nodded at his girlfriend as he finally let slate eyes peak out from behind his arm. "Say hi, Scorpius," he prodded playfully.

He gave Victoire a timid smile. "It's a pleasure, miss," he whispered.

Grinning down at the boy, Ted questioned the blond, "You going off to Hogwarts, eh?"

"Yes I am," he agreed. "Father says I should be in Slytherin like the rest of the family," and his-slate eyes seem to break apart right before Ted's gaze.

Bumping the kid's chin up, Teddy told his cousin, "I was in Gryffindor, and my mum was in Hufflepuff, and we're family, aren't we?"

Scorpius relaxed beneath his fingers and his eyes took on a hopeful sheen. "Then dad was mistaken?" He asked.

"Yeah, kid. Yeah, he was," Ted grinned. "Let the hat do its job, and you'll be exactly where you should be," he imparted.

Letting go of Teddy, his cousin almost seemed as carefree as James, the troublemaker. "Thanks, Edward!" With that, he slipped past and got on the train. Turning back in the doorway, Scorpius asked, "Will you write me? So I can let you know what house I'm in?"

"Sure, kid," Ted agreed, oddly proud, as the boy disappeared once and for all.

Staring at him with a mildly jealous quirk to her brows, Victoire demanded, "Just who are you saying goodbye to,  _mon chou_ , me or this cousin you've only met once?"

Teddy shifted uneasily and took his girlfriend's hand. "Hey now, I haven't seen him in a while and couldn't you see how scared he was? He needed me."

"What about me?" The girl grumbled. "You just let him butt in between us! You've never been like that with any of the other children!"

Throwing his hands up, the young man cried, "Why are you making such a big deal of this, Vic?"

"I don't like the way he was looking at you," she admitted with sudden candor.

Frowning, Ted echoed her words, "Looking...?"

"Forget it," Victoire declared viciously as she stepped into the train. "Look, you write me first, got it?"

Blinking in bemusement, Teddy nodded. "Sure! Okay! I'll owl you tonight!"

And without a final kiss, Victoire left without looking back. Later, despite what he promised, Ted ended up writing Scorpius first. But as not to upset his girlfriend, he saved his cousin's letter for the morning and sent Victoire's that night.

* * *

Bumbling through Hogsmeade on his lunch break, Ted wondered if he should take a trip home and see how Victoire was doing. Being eight months pregnant had made her a bit clumsy, and Teddy hated to think of could have happened between him leaving home this morning and now. Then again...she was quite sour right now. Not good company in the slightest! Her sister even agreed with Ted on that front. Ducking around a woman wearing a feathered hat, Teddy found himself running headlong into a long-limbed youth.

"Oof!" He yelped as the younger began careening backwards.

Grabbing one of the kid's skinny arms, Ted kept him from falling, and when he saw who it was, he couldn't help but laugh.

"Hello," the youth greeted.

Grinning back, Teddy asked, "What's up kid?"

"I'm meeting up with friends for school shopping; it's my final year, you know," Scorpius told him.

Nudging him playfully, Ted grinned. "Oh, I know. That's all you've been writing me about for the last month!"

Blushing, Scorpius gazed up at him with slate grey eyes and asked quite suddenly, "Did you know what you wanted to do after school when you were sixteen?"

Ted stopped and took in the appearance of his young cousin. He was pale. Like he'd spent all his summer inside and the dark rims around his eyes might have made him fret if he didn't already know Scorpius was prone to bouts of insomnia. "Not especially," he answered, "But I knew liked potions, so I ran with it. I'm pretty happy now."

Shifting so he was side by side with him, Scorpius began to walk. Teddy took a half-jog step to catch up as his cousin slowly began to talk, "My father wants me to become an businessman."

"What about you? What do you want?" Ted asked as he studied the kid; taking in how he twitched at the inquiry.

Scorpius turned his head, meeting his older cousin's gaze as his slate eyes appeared to fracture while his shoulders slumped. "I want to write. Poems. Maybe a book or two."

"Go for it," Teddy told his cousin as he tugged the younger toward The Leaky Cauldron. "Screw your old man!" He declared as he took them to an open table.

"Father will have a conniption and disown me..." Scorpius whispered as Ted ordered two butterbeers.

Ted frowned. Yeah, the man would admit, the Malfoys seemed a bit cold; however, surely they loved their only heir enough to not do such a thing. "Hey," he whispered as he took the kid's hand.

Meeting his serious gaze, the kid dropped his stare to the table top.

"Hey," he repeated as he lifted the young man's chin. Staring into slate eyes, Ted murmured, "Even if they're crazy enough to do something like that - I'm still here for you. I love you, got it?"

And for a moment, Scorpius's eyes were flint instead of slate, as they sparked with an inferno.

"Really? You love me?" He breathed with awe.

Teddy gave the boy a nod. "Sure do!"

"Wow, Edward, I love you too..." His cousin smiled. Leaning in then, his cousin did something completely unexpected and just a bit odd. Scorpius placed a brief kiss to his cheek before leaning back in his chair just as their butterbeers were being delivered.

Fingers coming to his cheek, Ted could only stare at Scorpius as the young man began to talk about the owl he planned to buy. What did a kiss mean to his cousin, he wondered briefly. And then, he pondered (guiltily) how did Ted get him to do it again?


	2. Chapter 2

A pot of water bubbling over on the stove; a box of noodles tipped and spilling its contents beside it, a man and women stood toe to toe screaming at one another with a pair of children caught in the thick of things. The woman, face ugly with vexation, gave the man a shove and her ultimatum.

"If you're just going to make a mess of things, get out!" Victoire screamed at him with Iven bawling on her hip and Nymphadora watching solemnly from behind her thigh.

The man looked to his daughter and felt his face tighten with disappointment. It seemed he couldn't even make dinner right for her and her brother - or at least he couldn't by Victoire's standards. Perfect, prim,  _picky_  Victoire! Feeling anger bubble up in his stomach, Ted yelled, "Fine! Fine I will you bitch!"

Seeing her eyes go wide, the man spun on his heels and disapparated from his family's kitchen to just outside a favorite pub of his. Looking at the blinking lights and smelling the scent of piss in the air, Ted could hear Vic's voice in his ear whispering,  _"It's a dive."_

It hurt. Ted didn't think it was. Sure, it was a little dirty and a couple times more seedy; but it gave it character! It housed people that were real and raw without the drink on their breath, not like the places Victoire picked when they decided to go out to a pub together. Sucking in a breath of air, Ted walked in and was pleasantly surprised by the fair-haired head he spied at the bar.

A grin overtaking his features, he approached and took the seat beside the blond. The other turning their head, he laughed when Scorpius's slate eyes went twice their usual size.

"Surprised?" Ted teased.

Smirking, Scorpius laughed softly, "I wasn't expecting you, that's for sure, Edward!"

Patting his back, the man asked, "How does it go, cousin?"

"Ah," the younger murmured as he took a sip of his pint. "It's really not worth talking about."

His slate eyes appeared cracked. As if somebody had just smashed them with a hammer. Who'd done it, he wondered? Had it been his cousin's father? Maybe a publisher or a professor at the muggle uni he was attending.

Leaning in close, Ted disagreed, "Of course it is. So, tell me Scorpius, how's that poem you were working on last week going?"

Face flushed, the blond raised in hand up in the air. "Two ale's please!"

A moment later, they're laid before them and his cousin finally begins to talk once Ted's downed half his drink.

"It's missin' something, y'see," his cousin slurred while he watched the two pink lips move in their entrapping way; talking about a kind of magic Ted had never really known how to work. Finished with his drink, Ted called for another and leaned in to listen to his cousin ramble on.

It went on like that for almost three hours - at which point they were kicked out and Scorpius offered his sofa to Ted.

He accepted the sofa, but once they were at his cousin's flat, Ted realized for the second time in twenty-odd years that his cousin was stunning. A beauty of long lines and harsh angles. Incapable of stopping himself, Teddy pushed himself onto Scorpius and began to kiss him.

The blond made a noise and stilled, but soon, he was returning their kiss with double the force.

Soon, on the same couch that had been offered to him for sleeping, Ted was undoing the buttons of Scorpius's shirt as the younger panted, "Edward, Edward..." into his neck.

What happened next was one of the best moments in Ted's life.

XxXxX

In the early day's faint light, Teddy crawled out of Scorpius's bed and found his pants and shirt from the night before and put them on. Too embarrassed to see if his cousin was awake, the man laced up his shoes and left without ever sending the other a glance. When he got home, he took a shower to clean away the sin of what he'd done. But just because he'd cleaned himself up didn't mean what he and Scorpius did hadn't happened. In fact, Victoire seemed to sense it; because even after she kissed him her apologies, the woman narrowed her eyes from time to time at him as he made faces at his children in an attempt to get them to laugh.

He should have felt more guilty, he knew, but he was just relieved she wasn't trying to pick a fight with him so early in the day.

* * *

It was a regular gray morning. The skies were smokey, the world dulled with a fine fog and even inside his home with the kitchen's overhead light on everything was dim. But that was England somedays and having spent almost all his life here, Ted expected it. Taking a big bite of her pancakes, Nymphadora got syrup all over her face and Ted gave a small chortle as he reached over to clean her up with a rag.

"Little bites, young lady," he chided.

The four year old gazed back with bored eyes and repeated her previous action. Shaking his head at her, Ted wondered why she never smiled. All the pictures he had seen growing up of his mother were of her smiling - even at her earliest ages. She smirked and beamed and laughed and twinkled like a star.

It always hurt, knowing just what kind of star she'd become. The short-lived kind, just like the blue giants he'd learned about in astronomy at Hogwarts. Leaning forward on his hand and elbow, he looked to Iven, the toddler was busy playing with his toy helicopter instead of eating. He was a good boy - quiet - but good. All his children were beautiful, just like their mother, but sometimes-

An owl landed outside the window.

Curious, Ted rose up and opened it. The bird dropped a letter in his hand. Opening it, Ted gasped.

_Dear Edward,_

_Your cousin Scorpius is in the hospital and is asking for you quite instantly; please come._

_our regards,_

_Draco and Astoria Malfoy_

Looking up, he left the kitchen and called "Victoire!?"

No answer.

" _Victoire_!"

A moment later, his wife appeared from the nursery with Jean still latched on her breast. Face cross, she demanded, "What is it Teddy?"

Teddy. He hated that name. It sounded so juvenile coming from her mouth, not like when Sc-

"Scorpius is in the hospital," he said to her.

Looking to their new son, Victoire carefully juggled him to just one arm before asking, "Why's that?"

"I don't know, but his parents are asking for me to come - and you know that's not like them," he explained to her.

She sighed. His wife didn't like his cousin, she never would either - but, she knew it'd be utterly ridiculous of her to tell him to forget Scorpius. "Be home by dinner?" Victoire begged instead.

He twisted the letter in his hands and replied, "I'll try," before disapparating to St. Mungos.

Going to the receptionist counter, he asked for Scorpius's room and was directed to the third floor second hall on the right and four doors down to room three hundred and sixty-two. Walking there was the longest moment in Ted's life.

Knocking on the half-opened door, Astoria appeared with Draco right behind her.

"You came," she acknowledged with red rimmed eyes.

Ted only shrugged as he countered, "He's my cousin."

"Mum? Father?" A voice croaked from inside the room.

His own gray eyes a strong, iron gray, Draco ordered, "Go talk to him. Maybe you can-" his voice cracked and Astoria squeezed one of his hands.

"Maybe you can get him to tell you why he did  _it_ ," Astoria finished hoarsely.

And the two departed, leaving Ted with no option but to go in and find out what had happened to his dear cousin.

"Hey," he greeted as he sat down beside the younger.

The blond reached out, his bandaged arm looking so very pale as he caressed Ted's face. "Edward," he whispered.

"What happened, kid?" The man asked.

Looking so very tired, Scorpius exhaled and let his hand fall away as he looked to the white wall opposite of them. "They wanted me to get  _married_."

"Don't all parents want that?" Ted inquired not quite certain as he laced his fingers together with the blond's.

Slate eyes, very much shattered, stare up at him dully. "I wouldn't have loved whoever I married."

"I don't love Victoire as I once did, but we still make it work," Teddy reminded Scorpius gently.

Gaze sharpening, his cousin disagreed. "What you to have is a  _truce_ , she doesn't call you out on what you do and you don't call her out on what she does. That's not making it work."

Ted found himself shrugging as he went on. "Okay, maybe it's a little more like a standoff between us, but I got you to make up for it, don't I?"

"Yes you do," Scorpius murmured with a smile.

"I love you, you know?" Ted whispered.

Eyes gleaming, Scorpius strained himself upward and placed a delicate kiss to the other's chin. "I love you too."

Brushing a finger over the bandages, Ted begged, "Don't try this again, Scorpius."

"I'll try Edward, I'll try," the blond agreed as he relaxed against the hospital bed with a fine smirk on his face.

Together, they sat in silence for a while. Teddy wondering if what they really had was love and Scorpius - Scorpius was dreaming up a love poem just for Edward.

* * *

After Scorpius left St. Mungos, Ted found himself spending most of his spare time with his cousin at his flat - occasionally even spending a weekend. Teddy feared so much for his cousin; he feared what the other would do if he left him alone too long and what could happen if he wasn't there to sooth one of Scorpius's bouts of fear and tragic feelings. And he knew it was not his job to take care of Scorpius, but Teddy loved him and that's what you do for people you love. Or at least he thought it was.

However, as more time passed between St. Mungos and the days (months,  _years_ ,) he spent in his cousin's company Ted started to question himself; he was not very certain he knew what love was anymore. Ted also feared he never really knew it either. What he had with Victoire had been fun and beautiful in the beginning. He liked how she looked and how she talked, she liked how he made others laugh and how good he was at snogging.

It almost felt childish now, how they decided they were in love with one another.

With Scorpius...he adored his cousin. He was thoughtful and funny and self-deprecating and his beauty rivaled Victoire's. But was that love? Could you call those feelings love? Ted didn't know. Sometimes he thought he did, but then he'd feel guilty after letting Scorpius suck him off or after fucking his cousin. And if what you had was love, you wouldn't feel bad about it, would you?

He never felt bad giving Victoire a blow job and it always felt  _good_  when she rode him through a climax.

Later, Teddy would muse on how much was societies conditioning and how much was the truth. But right now, all that mattered was making sure Scorpius didn't do anything stupid between now and being better.

He ended up sacrificing so much that one Sunday when he went home to get a change of clothes, Victoire confronted him.

"I know where you've been all weekend, Teddy," she hissed.

Silent, Ted just waited for her to finish.

When it became obvious he wasn't going to deny anything, that he wasn't going to try and sooth her hurt feelings of offer to fix things; Victoire growled, "If you love Scorpius so much, why don't you just go live with him!?"

"Okay," Ted agreed without an ounce of hesitation or fight in his voice.

Her eyes going wide with shock, the woman slapped him. "I can't believe you!" Victoire snarled. "You arse! You pig! I hate you! I hate you!" Spinning around after she finished screaming at him, she threw over her shoulder, "The kids are at my parents. I'm going to take all my things and move back in with them."

"Great," Teddy replied feeling numb. "I hope you're happy."

She stilled. But then with an angry noise, went on with her process of packing up everything that was hers.

Ted watched her take all her things and the kids things - slowly, their home became bare and lifeless. A mockery of what it'd been just a week before. The entire time, Teddy wanted to tell her to stop, but he didn't. Couldn't. Scorpius was waiting for him. His dear cousin was back at his flat undoubtedly wondering where Ted was as he chewed on his quill and wrote ballads and sonnets and haikus of love, life and tragedy for the world.

* * *

Turning back up at his cousin's flat a few hours later, Scorpius smiled and rose up to meet Ted at the door. "Hello Edward," his cousin whispered as he put a kiss to his unamused lips.

"Vic left me," Ted whispered as he took hold of his cousin's hand and squeezed it to get back a sense of reality.

Scorpius's eyes sparked like flint and he leaned in and rested his head against Teddy's shoulder. For a moment, it felt like comfort; but then it all changed when the blond declared, "Good riddance, she was a bitch anyway."

Rage bursting inside of him, Ted had to stop himself from throttling his cousin and took a step back from Scorpius and shouted, "She was my wife!" Running a hand through his suddenly flame-orange hair, Ted howled, "Dammit Scorpius! My wife and you think you can just call her a bitch!? You loser! You ass! You-"

Eyes narrowed, he got in the frightened young man's face and sneered at him.

"You're  _disgusting_ , you cock-sucking  _freak_."

Too angry to stay, Ted stormed out of his cousin's flat. That would be the last time Ted ever saw Scorpius alive.

* * *

He heard it second hand while at The Three Broomsticks the next day, two old wizards were talking at a table not too far from the bar where Ted was nursing a hangover.

"-can't believe it-"

"-kid wasn't even married-"

"-always thought he was a bit off kilter-"

"-wouldn't wish that on anybody not even the Malfoys-"

"-poor sods-"

"-yeah-"

Getting up, Ted approached with a dry mouth and fluttering stomach. "Who are you talking about?" He asked the two men.

One, a fellow with a rather large and bulbous red nose replied, "The Malfoy brat! Scorpion or something! It's all over the papers!"

"Here ya go, fella," the other said as he handed up The Quibbler.

Taking it, Teddy read it and felt his hands begin to shake.

" _...Malfoy heir found dead. Discovered hanging from a ceiling fixture in his flat by his mother..._ "

Handing it back quickly, he whispered, "Thanks mate."

Eyes narrowed, the man with the nose asked "You alright lad? You look a bit peaky."

"I just - I knew him, is all," he replied as he went away.

The bartender yelled at him as was about to leave the shop. "Oi! Don't forget to pay, you moron!"

Going back, Teddy slapped down more knuts than he probably needed to before taking his leave and disapparating for the home he and Victoire once shared. He spent the rest of the day there crying and then the next morning, he was too numb to move from his wedding bed. For the next week, Teddy moved like a zombie throughout his family's home - eating canned beets and fried eggs when he got too hungry to bare.

No one ever came looking for him. Not Victoire, not Draco or Astoria, not even  _Lily_  - his most favorite of the Weasley related cousin. Ted had to wonder just how far he'd fallen in people's opinions since he'd broken things off with his wife.

A couple more days passed when an owl came. Taking it, he realized it was from the Malfoys. Opening it, he read all the fancy words and declarations and figured out he was now the sole heir to the Black  _and_  Malfoy fortune.

Huh. They must have liked him more than he thought.

It made Ted cry again, to realize these people weren't blaming him for their son's death.

After another day, he wrote Victoire about his newly found fortune and promised that the children would all get an equal share of it as he never wished to see them wanting for something.

She didn't reply, of course, but that was okay because at least the letter hadn't been returned to him.

Feeling just a step above zombie, Teddy came to the conclusion it was time to visit his cousin's grave.

XxXxX

Finding it was quite easy, Scorpius was buried in the Malfoy family plot - which really wasn't a surprise. That's where all dead Malfoys ended up and to look there had been the logical choice for Ted. Walking through the green knolls, he looked for Scorpius's grave among the hundred or so that rested here. First he spotted one for a man name Armand - it was just shy of ancient and cracked in several places, but still beautiful with it's alabaster stone. He took note of some of the others too, like Abraxas, Lucius I, Lucius II, and then - he fell to his knees in the dirt.

Tracing the name of his cousin, tears came to Ted's eyes.

"Oh Scorpius..." he whimpered as he leaned his head against the cool gray marble. The poor man! He'd called him disgusting for loving Teddy and now he was dead. "I'm sorry," he apologized to his dead lover. "I was just so upset that I took it out on the one person I loved most..."

Tracing the name and date on the grave, he whispered, "I hope you can forgive me someday and that you're happier on the other side than you were here."

A zephyr passed through the hills and Teddy relaxed some. That was his Scorpius, soothing him with a gentle brush of air. It  _had_  to be. Smiling, Ted got up and left for his love's old flat.

Maybe his parents hadn't done a thorough job of cleaning it. Maybe Ted could find a little memento of Scorpius's to keep close to him forever.

* * *

Walking the mostly empty and thoroughly cleaned space, Ted wondered what he would do now without Scorpius by his side. Would he try and patch things up with Victoire? Would he go to his uncle Harry or Lily or someone and apologize for being a right arse and ask to be a part of their lives again?

No, Ted didn't think so.

He wasn't that sort of guy. Going to them would be like taking a step back and Teddy was about the future. Sticking around here would feel too much like Scorpius. And with a lump in his throat as he stepped into his lover's bedroom, he knew that wasn't what he wanted.

He didn't want a constant reminder of what had been and could have been.

What Ted wanted was to put this all behind him and just live a peaceable life. Maybe he could go to Spain or Italy and see if those locations were agreeable with him. Maybe Teddy could start a new life in one of those places and pretend Britain had never been.

Opening a closet door absently as he paced, Ted blinked at what he saw lying on the ground inside. It was a small box of papers. Picking it up, he began to sort through them and realized they were all the poems and stories Scorpius had been writing over the past few months. Digging a little, he found it curious when he found an envelope for him toward the bottom.

Why would Scorpius have put it there of all places, he wondered. Opening it, Ted read what was inside and began to weep.

"Scorpius, why do you always think everything's your fault?" He whispered to no one as he hugged the letter to his chest and made up his mind.

He'd do some traveling. See the world. Not just for himself, but for his lover too.

Teddy would live a beautiful life for the both of them and maybe, maybe if he was lucky he'd go to heaven and there he'd be able to share what he saw with his cousin so Scorpius could write the perfect epic he'd always dreamed of.

* * *

In a comfortably overstuffed bedroom, two children, a boy and a girl scampered over and under everything shouting at the top of their small lungs as a woman attempted to fold laundry on the bed. First the boy, then the girl, hurled themselves up and over the bed - toppling the basket of clean clothes in their wake.

"Charlie! Maggie!" Nymphadora screamed at her twin four year olds as she picked up the laundry hamper of clean clothes they'd knocked from her bed while they ran around her room for a third time in as many minutes. "You little brats!" She yelled at them, but they were already three-quarters the way out of her room.

Probably off to cause disaster elsewhere in her home.

Looking to the clock, she prayed that her husband, Michael, would be home soon. She needed a break after a day with them - she always did. These two were a true devils compared to their older sister, Melissa, who was already putting that ambition of hers to good use as a student of Slytherin at Hogwarts. Melissa might have been a bit impish as a little girl, but never had she caused near-apocalypses inside their home. Still thinking fondly of her eldest child, Nymphadora went to the kitchen to see if they'd gotten any letters from her today.

Picking up the mail from the counter, she made quick work of sorting the bills and her mama's letter when she was surprised to find one from the Ministry of Brazil at the bottom of the pile

Opening it, she read it over and felt her mouth drop open with a gasp.

"Dad's... _dead_ ," Nymphadora didn't know how to feel about it. She hadn't seen the man since she was six and even then he'd already paid her little mind most of the time. Sometimes, she felt that had to do with the fact she wasn't a metamorphmagus like her grandmother. Her mother had told her once that her father had shook his head at her and her siblings as babies when they had failed to turn any part of themselves different colors or shapes.

"He wanted a Metamorphmagus - someone to show all his tricks to," her mama would explain from time to time, "and when none of you turned out to be one, he just left you to me to raise! That's why he left, Nymphadora, Iven, Jean; we weren't what he wanted!"

This was also why none of them went to Hogwarts.

Her mama had wanted to spite their father in every way she could even though he'd never know. Dad hadn't written them letters after he left - he didn't even send presents for birthdays or Christmas. Essentially, Nymphadora's dad had disappeared.

While she understood where her mama was coming from...Nymphadora could recall her father. Yes, he'd been disappointed with them, but he loved her, Iven and Jean too. Why else did he always try so hard to get her and her brothers to laugh? A man who didn't want them wouldn't have done so, she knew that.

So, once again looking to the letter, she made up her mind. She'd go to Brazil and bring her father back for a proper burial. It was the least he deserved.

XxXxX

After making arrangements with the officials in Brazil, they gave her the key to the small flat her father had bought here. Curious, Nymphadora accepted it and went to her father's home. When she opened the door, she found it tidy and sparse. It seemed to her that her dad had few plans for staying long, but bought a place simply because he could.

Having more money than what you knew what to do with did that, Nymphadora had come to realize. On her eighteenth birthday, her mother had explained to her and her brothers as the last descendants of the Black family they would receive equal shares of the wealth.

Jean had gone crazy with it and was using his share up like muggles were using up fossil fuels.

Iven had strategically invested his share to make even more money and was one of the youngest and richest wizards in all of Britain.

Nymphadora on the other hand...she put it aside and kept it in her vault. Occasionally, like when she'd wanted a house for her and her husband, she'd used her money. Otherwise, she didn't like touching her Black fortune as it made her feel dirty. Who knew how those sick people had acquired it? The stories that went along with the House of Black's history were less than savory.

She figured it should only be used for good. When Nymphadora had married her lovely husband ten and a half years ago with Melissa already born, she'd felt spending her money on a house for her daughter and future children (the twins) to grow up in so they could someday make a better future for their world seemed like the best way to do this.

Finding few details of her father's life in his last days, Nymphadora was just about to give up and start for home when her foot hit something beneath her father's bed.

Crouching, she pulled out an ornate box and brought it up so it could rest in her lap while she sat on her father's bed. Opening the box, she was surprised by what was inside.

There were letters. Poems. Stories. All of them written by her father and a man named Scorpius. Spending the next several hours sorting them as the light outside dimmed into evening, Nymphadora learned the truth.

Her father had left her and her family because of this man.

Her dad, son of Remus Lupin and her namesake, had left her  _mama_  for his _cousin_. His cousin. That was - it was -

She cried.

When she finished weeping for the bitter truth, she began to fold the letters back up and put them away - wanting to be done with this rubbish and just  _leave_. However, fate had different plans and one, written in mostly red ink caught her eye. Turning it over in her hand, she wondered how she missed it the first time. Looking closer, she realized it was a poem written to her father:

_Side by side, I know what it is to love_

_Yet I feel the gulch that keeps us separate_

_If only, my dear love, we were two doves_

_Our love then endless, our link forever_

_Mayhap I should not wish us the white pair,_

_as those love birds can abscond from the fray_

_and I know you fear what flight would declare_

_and if I go stag, my world will be gray_

_Oh love, oh love, you are so divided_

_oh woe, my heart, oh woe, woe unto me,_

_You have loved twice and have not yet sided_

_How I fear for thee, how I fear for we_

_Will we live as our world dictates us to?_

_Or will we rise above our fates my beau?_

Beneath the sonnet was a scribble of dismay and fear of it not being good enough for a magazine let alone an actual book, but in another's scrawl (dad's) , is the urging phrase her father once used on her to get her to join the little league quidditch team as a girl:

_Go for it_

Simple, straightforward and full of heart-felt meaning. Closing her eyes, Nymphadora could almost recall him telling her the same thing years and years ago. His voice had been soft and heavy with a thousand and one different feelings. It was a saying he liked to use to coax the best out of every soul he encountered. She wondered how often her father told Scorpius the same over the course of his troubled life. Oh how deeply her father must have been hurt by his cousin's death! Surely it broke him...but unlike in one of the letters where her father described Scorpius's eyes as slate being chipped away to nothing by the stresses of the world, her father had been a man torn in one go. Like a stick snapped over a knee.

Nymphadora felt a different emotion for the two then. She would not let this love go unrecognized. It deserved to have its' day in the light - even if it had only ever been real in the darkness when her father and Scorpius were in each other's arms.

Sorting through the letters, poems and stories she compiled two halves. One, the tale of Scorpius and the other the story of her father. She would take these home and have them published. Scorpius would be the famous writer he always dreamed of and her father would be shown for who he really was:

a man; human with all the faults and valor that came with it.

Standing up and stretching, Nymphadora went to the window in her father's room and looked to the yellow-lit streets of the Brazilian city. A story like her father's and Scorpius's would need a preface; but how to start it? She could almost picture the perfect quotation...but how did it go?

Ah yes, that was how... Leaning her face against the cool glass of the window, Nymphadora stared down on a couple beneath a street lamp, their fingers were intertwined as they kissed goodnight. Not far behind them was a boy - little older than her Melissa, watching from the shadows. She wondered if this was what Scorpius, the poet-hopeful, had once seen as a young man. His love kissing another.

Oh why hadn't he been a poet? What had stopped that poor soul from realizing his one dream? Who had frightened him away from his destiny?

She had her suspicions, but didn't want to think on it. She was going to lose her quotation if she kept thinking like this. Closing her eyes, Nymphadora took a breath and whispered the first line of her preface:

_"Finish, good lady; the bright day is done, And we are for the Dark."_

_― William Shakespeare_

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment/kudo to let me know what you think :)


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